Abstract art, abstract artists, and the daily practice of painting and drawing.

May 15, 2013

Loving my cadmium reds and oranges, I used a palette knife to apply them in bold strokes, rising up as if in flames. I added some alizaron crimson for depth, and some cadmium yellow light above the flames.

Using a brush, I painted the whole background in parchment, blending it with the other colors around the edges. Then I brushed on highlights in titanium white.

Next I added touches of pthalo green and burnt umber for contrast and shading. Then I went back in with the brush and the knife to get the feeling I was looking for.

Abstract Painting #196, 20" x 20" acrylic on canvas.

A few days later, I decided more was needed and drew lines in burnt umber. I used my finger to blend and soften the lines. I think this painting has more impact now, but time will tell whether I need to work on it again.

May 13, 2013

Just as my bipolar moods swing from high to low, my paintings swing from busy and bright to a more austere palette and composition. In this latest one, I began by painting the whole canvas in titanium white.

Without waiting for the white to dry, I used a palette knife to make some bold sweeps in mars black. Because the paint was still wet underneath, the resulting black varied from opaque to blends of gray.

Next I used the knife again to add sections of parchment--a kind of off-white that contrasted with both the white and the black. Again, it came out solid in places, blended in others. The trick was to be careful about how and where I placed it.

I wanted some accidental marks made by serendipity, but by being careful where and how I put the overlaying paint, they were accidents with purpose.

Finally, I drew lines in mars black to tie the disparate sections together.

May 06, 2013

The thing I fell in love with in Georges Rouault's painting years ago was the way he outlined shapes in thick black lines. In desperation, that's what I tried in the last stages of this painting's revision.

Canvas #186, 24" x 24" acrylic on canvas.

The last time I worked on this painting, I ended up with a gentle, subdued result that I liked pretty well. But it didn't have enough pizazz, I decided finally, and so I tackled it again.

I added more color: cadmium red light, cadmium orange, cobalt teal. I darkened the pale brown with alizarin crimson and burnt umber. I also strengthened the whites and pale yellow, making everything much more in your face.

And then I dipped my brush in mars black, imagined I was Rouault, and went at it.

April 03, 2013

This new painting in green and white felt too monochromatic to me when I looked at it the next day. So I began to jazz it up with bright yellow, cadmium orange, and pthalo green. This time instead of a palette knife, I used a brush.

I ended up covering over almost the whole canvas, though the basic composition remained. I let the colors blend, so that the yellow, white and green became a lime green in places.

I painted the background over with parchment, and added that to the mix of colors in the main composition. Then I added lines in Prussian blue, feathering them with the brush.

Even though this painting is now signed, I will keep working on it, as I already see things that I don't like about it.

April 01, 2013

I began this new painting by covering the whole canvas with a pale green. After it dried, I used a palette knife to apply broad strokes of titanium white and parchment, blending them together. Then I added turquoise green, again using the palette knife.

There seemed to be too much green and not enough white, so I used the knife to add more white, covering up a lot of the green and blending with it in places. Very little of the parchment showed through at this point.

In my last step, I drew accent lines with Prussian blue. Then I took a small paint brush and brushed over these lines, softening and widening them. At that point I decided to stop and try again tomorrow.

March 20, 2013

I've been experimenting with technique in my recent painting sessions, working mostly with a palette knife. In this new painting, I first drew random lines with aqua and cobalt green all over the surface. Then I applied white and parchment over the whole canvas with a palette knife, blending the colors together.

Faint lines still showed at this point, though most of the green had melted into the lighter colors. While the paint was still wet, I drew more lines, creating a rough design.

Next, I used the palette knife to add mars black. I applied a few bold strokes, and then used the knife to blend, scrape, and push the colors around the canvas.

The final step was to draw lines in black, outlining some of the shapes for emphasis.

March 13, 2013

I liked the effect I had achieved in this new abstract painting (see previous post)--the sense of light shining through darkness, but felt the composition needed more strengthening.

My first step was to extend the dark gray/black edges all the way to the edge of the canvas. I used a brush for this step, whereas the original painting had been done completely with a palette knife.

Next, I filled in some of the "scraped bare" rectangles with unbleached titanium to make them pop more and to create movement. My next inspiration was to draw lines with cadmium red medium, outlining sections of the composition and adding texture.

Finally, I strengthened the black sections with black lines, and then used my finger to flatten them out. I liked that effect so much that I used my finger to flatten the red lines, also.